Work has finished on five new council houses which are helping to meet demand in Kirriemuir.
The development forms part of Angus Council’s ambitious building programme to provide more than 150 new council houses, which will help reduce the housing waiting list, and meet the council’s vision of building quality, affordable and energy efficient homes for rent in areas of highest need across Angus.
The homes have been built on the site of the former garages at Mortar Holes in Kirriemuir.
Now known as Ferrier Fields, the new houses are available for rent and have two bedrooms and are a mix of single storey and two storeys.
Council leader Iain Gaul said: “The homes at Ferrier Fields are smaller than other similar housing developments in Angus. This is in direct response to a shift in demand for smaller house types as a result of welfare reform changes.
“New-build projects like this require a substantial investment from the council and our rent payers, so it’s important that our rents are fair and deliver value for money.
“To make sure that we’re on track to deliver value for money I’m pleased to see the council are currently consulting with tenants on how we set our rents.”
Vice-convener of neighbourhood services Jeanette Gaul, who also visited the site, said: “I am delighted to see work completed on this site as it will make a considerable improvement to the Kirriemuir urban landscape in Lindsay Street, filling, as it does, the gap left by the former garages.
“The five new houses will be available to rent by local families and will provide a boost to the local council housing in the area.”
The houses were built for the council by Hadden Construction, using an airtight construction, complemented with high-efficiency gas boilers and whole house heat-recovery ventilation systems.
Environmentally-friendly building materials, such as recycled newspaper insulation with engineered timber joists in the floors and walls, were also specified. In addition, all Angus Council new-build houses have sprinkler systems fitted to improve tenant safety in the event of fire.
Funding of £120,000 has been secured by the housing division from the Scottish Government to help with the project costs. A survey revealed a bank of more than 1,700 Angus housing sites under construction or ripe for development by 2020.
The Angus housing land audit is an annual scrutiny of district sites with the capacity for five homes or more, aimed at helping to inform housing land requirements for strategic planning purposes.
A broad breakdown into four main areas shows west Angus Forfar/Kirriemuir and landward and east Angus Arbroath and landward to have 596 and 520 sites available respectively.
In north Angus the 2013-20 figure comes in at 345, with south Angus having the lowest number of sites at 245.